Palace Theatre

Main Street,
Marietta, OK 73448

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Functions: Retail

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The Liberty Theatre was doing so well in Marietta in the silent era that operators E.L. King and Ben Wallace opened a second Main Street theatre with the Palace Theatre. The venue launched on October 16, 1925 with Bessie Love in “A Son of His Father”. In 1926, Western star “Riding” Bob Roberts appeared at the Palace Theatre in person.

The town had difficulty supporting multiple movie venues and the Palace Theatre dropped out of the movie business altogether in 1926 though hosted some sporadic live events including boxing matches. That is until the Liberty Theatre suffered a fire in 1930 which allowed an operator to create the Empress Theatre which opened with sound and A.V. “Milton” Wade’s New Palace Theatre also opening with sound on August 22, 1930 with Constance Bennett in “Common Clay”.

Again, the town struggled to support both theatres and the Empress Theatre closed early in 1931. The Palace Theatre’s sound was so substandard that it closed for a month to improve sound treatment relaunching March 6, 1931. Other notables included KVSO hosting a radio show from the stage of the Palace Theatre in 1937.

Future Marietta Mayor Lamonte King decided to go for a better theatre. When the King Theatre prepared for its March 16, 1939 opening, the Palace Theatre’s days were numbered. King closed the Palace Theatre on March 11, 1939 with Tyrone Power in “Jesse James”. It made a brief cameo in 1940 before closing again.

Contributed by dallasmovietheaters

Recent comments (view all 1 comments)

50sSNIPES
50sSNIPES on February 1, 2022 at 8:25 pm

Sound was installed on August 22, 1930, with its first sound film being “Common Clay”, along with a Fox Movietone Newsreel.

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